Anti-corruption officers have launched a criminal investigation into a company whose owner was the majority shareholder in an investment company from which Sutton Council agreed to buy an out-of-town retail park.

Monaco-based businessman Ata Ahsani, who held 230 shares in real estate company Lumina Real Estate Capital when the authority agreed on the deal, has since transferred all his shares to his son – the company’s director – Sassan Ahsani.

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Mr Ahsani Snr, who runs Unaoil, an energy company under investigation by anti-fraud agencies, signed over his shares in Lumina less than a month before the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) announced it will look into the activities of Unaoil in connection with suspected bribery, corruption and money laundering.

The SFO has now revealed it is investigating the energy company.

A spokesman said: “The SFO is conducting a criminal investigation into the activities of Unaoil, its officers, its employees and its agents in connection with suspected offences of bribery, corruption and money laundering.”

Sutton Council’s chief executive, council leader and deputy leader all signed off on the purchase of a retail park in Reading before pulling the plug at a late stage.

They had agreed on May 6 to use council money to buy Reading Link Retail Park from Lumina.

Council bosses paid a private law firm at least £35,000 to conduct a two-month audit before agreeing the transaction through the Jersey-based Reading Link (Jersey) Ltd, set up by a Lumina-managed fund registered in the Cayman Islands.

In March Unaoil was thrust into a storm of media reports alleging corruption after internal emails were leaked to the Huffington Post and Australian news group Fairfax Media.

Authorities in Monaco subsequently raided Unaoil’s offices and interviewed company executives. Unaoil has denied allegations of corruption and said the reports were “littered with sensationalist distortions and misleading correlations”.

In a statement in May the company said it had “been the victim of a four-month extortion attempt by criminals,” adding: “The extortionists demanded huge sums of money from us in exchange for stolen emails and threatened that if we didn’t pay they would go to the media.”

There are no allegations or evidence of wrongdoing by Lumina and the council initially decided to press ahead with the purchase of the retail park.

The council pulled out of the deal on May 13.

Documents seen by the Sutton Guardian show council leader Ruth Dombey, chief executive Niall Bolger and deputy leader Simon Wales signed off on the deal following the end of the due diligence process.

Lumina insisted it had never been a business partner of Unaoil.

A spokesman said: “We have a series of clients from across the international spectrum to whom we give real estate advice to. Unaoil is not and has never been a partner of Lumina nor has it been involved with any of the operational activities of Lumina.”

But Unaoil was listed on Lumina’s website as a “consistent partner” as of June 2008. The relevant page of the website has since been removed.

A council spokesman said: “Sutton Council’s strategy and resources committee has agreed unanimously that the council should raise revenue for the public purse by investing in viable commercial properties as they can offer a much greater rate of return compared to other types of investment.

“We will only invest if there is a sound business case and so far we have been looking into over 50 potential investments but only gone ahead with two.

“We have been looking into purchasing Reading Link Retail Park but we have decided not to go ahead.”